NHL salary cap set to balloon by $25.5M over 3 seasons

The NHL and the NHL Players' Association have agreed on a plan that will boost the salary cap to $113.5 million for the 2027-28 season, the two sides announced Friday.

The current cap is $88 million and will increase to $95.5 million in 2025-26, to $104 million in 2026-27 and ultimately to $113.5 million. That's an increase of $25.5 million over the span.

Those figures are the upper levels of a salary limit, but the NHL also has lower limits that teams must spend. They are $70.6 million in 2025-26, $76.9 million in 2026-27 and $83.9 million in the final season of the agreement.

The lower limit currently is $65 million.

The league said the numbers could be slightly altered in the final two seasons of the deal.

The salary limit represents one part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which commissioner Gary Bettman has said he hopes is finalized this year -- perhaps as early as June.

"I don't want to prognosticate on collective bargaining," Bettman said. "We have a very open, constructive relationship with the Players' Association right now. I find working with (NHLPA executive director) Marty Walsh and (assistant executive director) Ron Hainsey ... very constructive, very professional, very cordial. So we're not going to get ahead of ourselves and prognosticate as to what's going to happen, although we hope to do this as quickly and as seamlessly as possible."

Whenever enacted, a new spending limit will benefit top NHL players as they hit free agency. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers, Mikko Rantanen of the Carolina Hurricanes and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs are due to become free agents this summer, with superstar captain Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers headlining a star-studded free agent class of 2026.

--Field Level Media